toronto stories

thanksgiving

Hello again,

If you're reading, please send an email or post a comment if only to acknowledge that you are still breathing. Please. And thank you. Now, on to my life since I last wrote.

The Toronto International Film Festival arrived in a whirlwind week of celebrities in town. My friend was able to snag passes to a movie - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang starring Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer. She took yours truly. We arrived an hour early...and were about 200 people behind in line. These being ticket holders. (There was also a line for RUSH tickets...) And all these people paid $20 for the privilege of lining up and seeing an unreviewed movie. Lucky for us, the movie turned out to be fairly good - some parts hilarious, but other bits too violent for my taste. The best part I guess is that Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer arrived and made speeches and then sat down in the audience to enjoy the film with the rest of us. We got out about midnight and I was toast the next day at work. Good experience but you won't me finding paying that much to see a film. I understand some films cost up to $50! The movie is opening up next month in theatres across the nation I believe.

I've also hit a couple of museums since I last wrote - the Royal Ontario Museum and the Bata Shoe Museum. It seems that all the museums in TO. are undergoing renovations, so a portion of each museum was closed. The ROM was great for seeing stuffed (ahem, preserved) wildlife from all over the continent (zebras to eagles to pandas to lions) while the Shoe Museum was celebrating the 10th anniversary and it was interesting to see the history of shoes and the various "professions" - ballet dancer, astronaut, cowboy footwear. They had some shoes of stars (elizbeth taylor etc.) and princess diana and even ronald mcdonald (size 22!).

Celebrities are fairly common here, not just during the film festival (where Madonna and Cameron Diaz showed up as well.) Sarah Jessica Parker was here promoting her new perfume so I saw her (along with hordes/hundreds of others.) Kim Catrall was here promoting her latest book. (I didn't see her...)

I also visited the Toronto Islands, which can most easily be explained as similar to Stanley Park. It's a cluster of islands joined by footbridges and close to downtown. Once on the islands, you can almost pretend you are away from the city. The one side facing Lake Ontario even has beachy areas so you can pretend you're out sunning yourself at the beach while the waves crash ashore. The other side facing the city: you can see the CN tower, and a couple of office towers (mine included since mine is 60+ stories high). Great place to picnic and there was an amusement park with rides for kids.

Speaking of heights, you would not believe it but they actually do run fire drills. I had the joy of walking down 45 flights of stairs when our whole building did the practice run. My calves were sore the next two days.

I've visited Chinatown and a couple of markets (similar to Granville Island). I've also gone to the Greek area of town as well as Little Italy, Little India, and what they Torontonians call the "Beaches". Ok, there's a boardwalk, on the polluted lake. Nothing compared to Vancouver but it's better than nothing. Apparently, the fall colours aren't as vibrant as usual this year due to an unseasonably smoggy and polluted summer. The leaves are starting to change now.

Went to see Jason Mraz at a concert (another freebie ticket won) and this past long weekend went to Niagara Falls, had a lovely meal at one of the wineries, checked out the butterfly conservatory and then went to the African safari where there were 7 game reserves. Yeah...in the middle of Toronto...who would've thunk?

I guess I should stop now before I am too carried away. Basically, life's been good, life's been busy. I hope you are doing well and I hope to hear from you soon!

posted by toronto girl @ 11:38 PM